General Thinking: A Digital Guild

Whole Earth,  Summer, 2001  by Tucker Viemeister

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I rode my bike through the bleak New York City evening, headed for a gathering of general thinkers. That's not unusual for me, as I generally steer clear of getting too specific. But this meeting would be different, because it was the first time that more than three members of the group "General Thinking" had ever occupied physical space together!

I waved to Remo (the cofounder of the group) through the window of the restaurant as I chained up my bike. As I entered I began to get this weird feeling: somehow these people felt like my friends, but (and here's the weird part) I'd never met them before.

They even looked familiar. How could that be? It dawned on me that it was because we were all preselected by networking software that Remo Giuffre and his pal Geoffrey Gifford, two Australians, had just launched. We were witnessing the birth of a self-organizing system. It was looking sustainable.

To understand what's special about this network, I'll have to tell you about Remo, but before I get into the Story of Remo, here's a quick description of GeneralThinking.com. (Before I do that, in the spirit of full disclosure, I want you to know that I am Remo's friend. Because of that friendship, I was invited in as one of the first General Thinkers. I would have joined up even faster, if I hadn't been distracted by filling in the forms by my untimely layoff as Executive Vice President of Research and Development at my former employer, Razorfish.)

General Thinking is a loose kind of digital guild, gathering together in the Internet. It started because Remo set the ball rolling, and Geoffrey knew how to write the code to power it. They made the rules and built the playing field. They invited a few of their friends to play. The friends then nominated some of their friends to come along, and so on and so on.

No one is quite exactly sure why they were doing this or where it might lead.

General Thinking is meant to be a network of smart people who share this general idea: we all agree generally on the kind of things that would make the world a better place. It seems we also agree generally on how to make our own lives better (what kind of stuff we like in our lives, and the places we like to live in or visit). Through the method of growing the network, the process is self-selecting people who are already digitally connected.

Add to this that we are already an outgoing bunch (everyone is the friend of the person who nominated them). Then there's this weird little wrinkle, one more defining personality trait: we all like to do projects with people who have different points of views and different skills (that's what makes the quest fun). So General Thinking is an expanding network of creative people looking both for other people to include in their projects and for new projects to work on. More specifically, as the website says: "Most of our general thinking (hence the name) and collective experience as thinkers, developers, and strategists has been on the ground and in real marketplaces, thick with: people, merchandise, stores, theatres, restaurants, cafes, kiosks, catalogues, brochures, books, magazines, films, music--literally thousands of ideas touching millions of people."

Where did Remo get this idea? Remo is an Australian who built this store in Sydney called REMO General Store. It should be significant that he named it after himself (luckily his parents named him Remo). It was not a specialized store, but a general store. The very idea of this store was to collect and sell the best of things, like the ideal bathrobe, the perfect white shirt, the best soaps (Kiehl's), the quintessential khakis, the superlative goofy toys, etc.

Remo really liked talking to his customers, and finding out where they got their good stuff (so he could stock it in his store). So both the stock and the community grew. This led to a REMO catalog that became more like a newsletter. It described all the merchandise in an urban J. Peterman style, and spit back mucho feedback from his customers.

These stories were not just about REMO products, but also about cool things consumers found to see or do. This situation not only built him a nice little brand, but it began to create a community who had more in common with each other than the fact that they were wearing the same, perfect, white shirts. Remo mailed these catalog/newsletters around the world--because his kinds of people were scattered around in London, New York, San Francisco, Hong Kong, etc.

Remo the man and REMO the brand somehow merged. One day we passed a guy wearing a REMO tee shirt, so Remo says, "I'm Remo!" to the guy, who looks at him as if to say, "How can you be a tee shirt?" But that's just it--Remo the guy really is REMO the shirt! And the REMO community values that kind of dedication!

The level of loyalty demonstrated by REMO customers is legendary. Remo has come to realize (after the fact) that the reason for this has as much to do with process as it does with content. In other words, REMO customers were always highly involved in the very process of merchandise development. It's no wonder then that REMO customers feel so loyal to the brand. They are, in effect, co-owners.